Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-03-11

The thirty-fourth annual course of lee
lures of the Medical department of the
University of Vermont opensd in the lee
ture room of the Medical college building
Thursday afternoon. A class of over 100
students was present. The exercises
opened at o'clock. On the platform with
President Buckham were DR. A. F. Grin
nell, dean of the medical faculty, Drs
Jackson, Woodland, Wheeler Willard, At
water, Briggs, Hon. w. l.. Burnap, Hon.
10 d. Hatch and others. President Buck
ham addressed the following opening re-
marks to the class
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S REMARKS.
Gentlemen: | take pleasure in welcom
ing you to the opening of the 34th annual
course of lectures of the Medical depart
ment of the University of Vermont; and
in doing so ! congratulate myself and you
that it is no part of my duty, as 1t has
been on some previous OCCASIONS to make
any obituary notice of deceased professors
or benefactors of the University. | con
graduate you also on what seems to me to
be the improved atmospheric condition of
this ROOM a matter which is source of
comfort to you, who must pass so many
hours here. | congratulate you on the ex-
tended length of the medical term, which
will give you better opportunity to digest
the large and concentrated amount OF in
struction which you will receive. Most of
all | congratulate you on the prospect be
fore you of pursuing the fascinating stud
les of your profession, for so they seem to
me to be. Every time that have heard a
lecture from one of your professors have
almost envied you, who have youth and
health and opportunity before you for
pursuing such delightful studies. Every
time | hear one of your lecturers, | am
more impressed With the scripture which
says that we "are fearfully and wonder
fully made ~ and 90 away entertaining a
greater awe of myself and my Maker, and
feeling what wonderful organism it is
that you are studying. | congratulate
you that the studies of the profession you
have chosen are progressive studies. They
have future. You have not learned, nor
have your professors learned, all that per
tains to this knowledge. We are vet in
the infancy of the science of medi
cine Within my remembrance there
has been an almost total rever-
sal of the theories advocated by the
older men. The whole theory of fevers,
inttammations, and very large number of
diseases, has been totally changed within
the last 30 years. This is the attitude
of all medical scientists who are up with
the times. We are to-day going in ad-
vance of the last five years. | congratu-
late you OIL the consideration that you
have to do with progressive science, one
that compels you to be students. | must
also give expression to another feeling,
which always have when face body
of medical students, and that is that of all
those whom society calls to positions of
responsibility and trust of the most deli
cate kind, you are the foremost. You
will be called to attend cases where a
word, "A thought, an act on your part may
make adherence of life and death. There
fore like to see medical students, while
as though they had a realizing sense of
their responsibilities | like to see them
busy at lectures with note book and pen
Gil, and earnest in all their work. So, gen
tlemen, without OBTAINING You longer,
welcome you 20 this medical department,
to the lectures of these able men, to al the
pleasures our little city affords, its pleas
ant scenery, its fine libraries its we'll kept
and attractive churches, its pleasant
homes, and especially to hard work in this
room and your own rooms.
President Buckham then introduced
Hon. w. L. Burnap, professor of medical
jurisprudence in the Medical department
of the University, who delivered the open
ing lecture of the course.
HON. W. L. BURNAP's LECTURE.
The speaker said, in opening, that he de
sired TO portray frankly to the class
some of the impressions which the
looker-on, and to speak of its past pro
gress and future conditions. The choice
of a profession, he continued, is a matter
of grave sollcltatude to every thoughtful
and earnest young man. If such choice
is dictated by fancy, we may look fo
ridiculous failure; and If without intro
spection, it may turn out to be not only
unwise but mistaken. A bove all, a younl
man who merely fails into a profession
carries into it no zeal, aspiration or am
bition. Such man only brings d!scredi
upon profession. 1t used to be a popu
lar delusion that the members of the clerl
cal profession were ''called :" but that de
fusion was fortunately dispelled long ago
The calling you have chosen is tull 0
earnest work peculiar to itself, in investi
CATION, discovery and experiment. Tn
principles of theology and law ar
established and need only to b
brought out into stronger light. Bu
medicine has not yet reached the domain
Of science. Its practice, except, perhap
in the domain of surgery. must AS ye
necessarily be largely empirical. Its stu
dents are still in pursuit of exact principle
of science although in this modern epoc
no such advances have been made in an
department of human effort as medicine
The equipment of well-titted physical
of the olden time would hardly be rud
mentary in these days. Homeopathy the
was unknown. More medicine was the
taken every year by the well than is no.
taken in the same time by the sick. Waite
was denied to patients in fever, and me
curial mixtures were given UNIVERSAL
and in enormous doses. Bleeding wa
practiced to the most ridiculous eXces
Contemplate for a moment this scientlf
barbarity But in n thousand ways IL
practice of medicine has slowly bee
changing and improving. With this pre-
ent century the most important of OF
medicinal specifics have been added to Il
pharmacopia of the physician, and II
wonderful instruments OF modern medic
science have been discovered.
There is something serious in the stri
lures, even of witty sort, which ha'
been passed upon the profession of met
cine. They show that lack of confiden
which men always feel concerning an
thing which is yet experimental. Co
template that most dreaded, melancho
and subtle of the ills which affect huma
ity, mental arrangement. While scie
lists assure us that the duration of humt
life has been increasing and its condition
lettering, yet statistics show an alarmiI
Il L ~